All Cash - Harbor Closes Distressed Foreclosure Sale

LONG BEACH, Calif., June 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Harbor Associates, LLC ("Harbor") has acquired Tustin Corporate, a 43,517 square foot office building located at 18302 Irvine Boulevard, Tustin, California in an all cash transaction with The Bascom Group, LLC ("Bascom"). Harbor acquired the asset through a distressed on-line auction bid process from an out of state special servicer. This transaction marks the eighth value-add office acquisition for Harbor in the last two years and second acquisition for the firm in the last 10 days, coming on the heels of the firm's acquisition of Bespoke Century City in West LA. The acquisition expands the firm's existing footprint in Orange County to 7 buildings across 5 different projects and represents the firm's third acquisition in Tustin where they own close to 300,000 SF.

Tustin Corporate

Harbor is planning to reposition the asset through a comprehensive rebranding and renovation program that includes cosmetic upgrades to the exterior of the building, upgrading lobbies and restrooms, installing new creative office spec suites and including new outdoor seating spaces. As part of the repositioning, the project will showcase 15' foot first floor ceiling heights, authentic brick architecture and private patios for individual tenants on the 3rd floor.

The property is located on a prominent hard corner in Tustin and within ¼ mile of Old Town Tustin which features a street of historic buildings that date back to the 1880s and is home to many of Tustin's most popular restaurants and retail destinations. Within one mile of the property there are ten health clubs, three grocery stores, two banks, six hotels and over 130 restaurants.

The buy for Harbor is the firm's eighth recent acquisition, coming on the heels of Harbor's creative office purchases of 'Create Tustin' & 'Bespoke Tustin' in Tustin, California, 'Bespoke Century City' in West Los Angeles, '5280 Carroll Canyon' in San Diego, '71 At The Park' in Lake Forest, 'Bespoke Irvine' in Irvine, and 'Think Here' in Thousand Oaks, California.

Justin Loiacono, Principal for Harbor, comments, "We acquired Tustin Corporate at a phenomenal basis via a distressed auction sale and continue to find interesting opportunities in Southern California to invest in the value-add space through our ability to move quickly and close all cash on compelling opportunities. We have a robust pipeline of activity behind this transaction."

Brad Johnson, Vice President for Harbor, states, "The bones of this building are incredible with the brick façade, 15 foot ceiling heights on the first floor and private patios on the 3rd floor. We'll be focusing our efforts on maximizing the quality features in-place and adding new outdoor seating areas, lobby and restroom enhancements and creative office spec suites that cater to tenants in the 2,000 – 6,000 square foot range."

Paul Miszkowicz, Principal for Harbor, adds, "Tustin Corporate represents our eighth value-add office acquisition in the last two years in Southern California and expands our Orange County portfolio to 7 buildings totaling 367,000 square feet. We are very excited to be making our third acquisition in Tustin. We intend on building on our recent momentum by sourcing new opportunities and pursuing similar strategies in high demand Southern California submarkets to meet our acquisition goal of $250M by year end 2017."

About Harbor: Harbor Associates, LLC (www.harborassociates.com) is a value add operating platform focused on acquiring and repositioning under-performing commercial real estate assets throughout Southern California. The three Principals of Harbor have over 30 years of experience in Southern California and have closed over $1.7B in acquisitions and asset managed over $2.5B in assets totaling over 3M SF of office. The company is a joint venture with The Bascom Group, LLC.

About Bascom: The Bascom Group, LLC is a private equity firm specializing in value-added multifamily, commercial, and non-performing loans and real estate related investments and operating companies. Bascom sources value-added and distressed properties including many through foreclosure, bankruptcy, or short sales and repositions them by adding extensive capital improvements, improving revenue, and reducing expenses by realizing operational efficiencies through implementation of institutional-quality property management. Bascom, founded by principals Jerry Fink, David Kim, and Derek Chen, is one of the most active and seasoned buyers and operators of apartment communities in the U.S. Bascom has completed over $13 billion in multi-family and commercial value-added transactions since 1996 including more than 307 multifamily properties containing over 80,000 units. Bascom has ranked among the top 50 multifamily owners in the U.S. Bascom's subsidiaries and joint ventures include the Southern California Industrial Fund, Rushmore Properties, Bascom Portfolio Advisors, Shubin Nadal Associates, Spirit Bascom Ventures, REDA Bascom Ventures, MHF RM Holdings, Bascom Northwest Ventures, Bascom Arizona Ventures, Harbor Associates, Village Venture Partners, Branch West Ventures, Bascom Milestone Ventures, and the Realm Group. Bascom's subsidiaries also include Premier Business Centers, the largest privately held executive suite company in the U.S. For additional information, please visit www.bascomgroup.com.